Clinton To Visit Mexico For Crucial Negotiations

Summit: He will meet with Zedillo to discuss drug fighting and immigration.

Mexico City - Despite appearances, President Clinton is not heading to
Mexico's sunny Yucatan Peninsula this weekend for a post-impeachment holiday.

He actually has serious work to do in Merida, the whitewashed resort city
where he meets Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo on Monday for their
seventh - and probably most important - summit. The meeting, which may
yield new agreements on fighting drug traffickers and coping with
immigration, could alter relations between the United States and its
troubled southern neighbor.

Since the Cold War, relations with Mexico have not been a top priority for
the White House. But U.S. officials are increasingly worried and sputtering
economy may directly affect the United States.

"There are few worries in this neighborhood, and that allows the United
States to pay attention to other problems," said Richard Haass, foreign
policy director at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "But
imagine Mexico if it were an unstable, failed state."

Despite its problems, Mexico is now the second-most important U.S. trade
partner. That's why Clinton's trip - part of a recent agreement with
Zedillo to meet twice a year - signals a shift in perspective for U.S.
leaders.

"Maybe the trip means Mexico will be getting the foreign policy respect it
deserves," Haass said.

Just before the summit, White House and Mexican administration officials
were hammering out language on as many as three agreements that could
surface from the Clinton-Zedillo meeting.

Most important is a new joint effort to fight drug-related violence along
the long U.S.-Mexico border. The plan is based on a generally successful
border partnership between police in San Diego and Tijuana.

Recent talks have also produced a deal aimed at preparing for decisive
responses to natural disasters - to head off fresh waves of U.S.-bound
migration.

A third pact may focus more U.S. attention on its border patrol and growing
allegations of mistreatment of migrants, according to Juan Rebolledo,
Mexico's deputy foreign minister and its point man on U.S. relations.

For all its promise, the latest Clinton-Zedillo summit comes at a time of
strained relations between the neighbors.

U.S. officials blame Mexico for the cheap crack cocaine and heroin flooding
U.S. inner cities and the methamphetamines spreading in rural and heartland
communities. And although Mexican workers are the backbone of the U.S.
hotel, restaurant and farm sectors, they remain lightning rods for
anti-immigrant forces concerned with what they see as taxpayer burdens
caused by lowpaid migrants.

Mexicans still fume that last year's so-called Casablanca money-laundering
sting, which netted several Mexican bankers tied to drug traffickers,
violated Mexico's sovereignty, because U.S. law enforcement operated inside
their country without its knowledge or consent.

Despite the rhetoric, officials in both countries recognize the need to
remain friendly.

U.S. manufacturers' expansion in this free-trade era has created about 1
million jobs in Mexico and accounts for half of its manufactured exports.
Mexico's low labor costs help keep U.S. companies competitive. And as the
Asian consumer market shrinks, Mexico is emerging as an important source of
export profits for U.S. makers of high-technology and consumer goods.

While there is fear in Washington of political instability in Mexico as its
presidential selection process becomes more open and competitive, free
trade between the two countries is endorsed by each of the major candidates
who want to succeed Zedillo next year.